


Shed Your Skin

by karrenia_rune



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She has been many things, and meant many different things to a variety of people; but she will always remain true to  who and what she is at her deepest self.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shed Your Skin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trobadora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trobadora/gifts).



Disclaimer: Highlander: the Series belongs to Panzer/Davis and its producers and creators. It is not mine.

 

She has usually been content to be the power behind the thrones of the rich and powerful; content to play the role of king-maker, or in some cases queen-maker rather than take center stage herself. 

And it’s not that has she ever doubted her ability to command and win the hearts and minds of the common people; it’s rather than she prefers to the former to the latter.

During the past three millennia that she has learned to adapt to the ebb and flow of the centuries like a river. Much like a river one can either be swept underneath the pull of the tide or being carried forward by it. It may not be the best survival strategy but it has become the way that has employed to the fullest.

She has been called many things by many people, by the legendary female tribal warrior and leader of the Ordemacai, Boudicca, she was called ‘acushlah,’ which meant ‘beloved’ in the rolling and lilting tongue of ancestors of the Irish.

Her memories of the sun-drenched rolling hills of Albion are some of her happiest memories, even when it meant enduring long, bumpy rides on the chariots of the long-haired, contentious warriors with their gold necklaces. 

Sadly, not much remains of Boudicca or her people, except the legend, sometimes Cassandra misses her old friends, and old flames, both male and female. 

In the privacy of her home she fingers the gold and silver intertwined strands of the cuff that was given to her on the anniversary of her adoption into the tribe. She only wears it on special occasions, it acts like a touch-stone to trigger the memories of the past; when the memories especially strong emotional recurrences; it is like a flashback.

 

Not only who she is, but more importantly what she is, an Immortal: time has a habit of skipping forward and back in her memory, kind of like a mental flip-book with the pages illustrated in black and white and in color when she comes closer to the present day.

Another touch-stone: At first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a worn piece of rock; hardly worth saving. But it is more than that. It is a reminder of the time in her life when she was charged, sentenced and stoned by the villagers in a small town in Germany. 

That was before she learned to fully master her powers, powers that until then were still undeveloped and often escaped her control. 

Her ability to use vocal inflection, tone, and pitch in order to manipulate others into doing what she wanted; or some cases to prevent them from harming her or others came from was something that she never quite understood. 

She only knew that it came in handy.

In this particular case it back-fired and she was branded a witch and stoned to death. The pain of the rocks impacting into her flesh, spittle running from her mouth and down her jaw; it is a painful memory.

However, she reminds herself that as painful and humiliating as this experience, what does not kill us makes us stronger. This too shall pass, and it is also a reminder that in the future she must remember to learn to control her power not just so she can avoid having to suffer a similar fate again.

If she is angry with the villagers for condemning her as a witch she refuses to let it show on her face, she will not allow them to have that satisfaction. They are only acting out of fear and ignorance.  
****  
A third touch-stone she can fight if she needs to and not just to defend herself from other immortals whenever she is challenged. 

She considered that she has managed to mostly stay out of the fray of the Game and while still harbors more than a few doubts about whether or not there is a prize at the end of it all she has never really give much thought to it.

 

 

Sometimes she thinks that there has to be more to fighting than mere survival, something that a certain French lady taught her, and while she never thought that her ex-husband and captain of His Majesty’s Musketeers was attractive in a tortured, rough-around-the-edges sort of way; however she would never dare to come between them. 

 

Mi Lady de Winter might even have welcomed such a threesome, nay, she might even have encouraged not because it would have been considered scandalous, but because it would have presented a challenge. And if Cassandra recalled correctly if there was one thing that Mi Lady enjoyed most above all, even above intrigue and secrets, it would have to have been a challenge. 

**> A fourth touch-stone, this one is a piece of faded blue cloth. It once belonged to the proud and powerful clan MacLeod of the Scottish Highlands. She was then known and willfully cultivated the reputation of the Witch of Donan Woods. Little had she known at the time that her past and his future would collide so many centuries later on. 

However, the matter of Duncan McLeod and his somewhat irritating and seemingly unreachable wall of stubborn Boy-Scout mentality is not an issue at the moment. 

He’s a good man, perhaps too much so. However, she would have to deal with him later on. 

**  
And finally, the fifth and last touchstone, she saves this for last, not because it is the most valuable or has the most sentiment attached to it; no she saves it for last whenever she is in the mood to reminisce about the past. No, it is because it like a man who has lost a hand or a foot claims to that he can feel the ache of the loss or insist that he can still feel the lost limb where it has been amputated. 

It is like this painful ache that despite all her experience, her efforts to bury down deep in a dark corner of her mind, and her the healing ability granted to her by her Immortal physiology; never quite has responded to her efforts to suppress it or rid herself of it no matter how hard she tried.

 

It appears to be nothing more than a frayed leather strap, however, the discoloration at the edges and center tells a different story. This is the only remaining piece of the leather rein that had once been used to keep her a captive of the legendary Four Horsemen, Immortals like herself who held her captive. 

 

Sometimes she thinks that she will toss it aside, or burn it; or even deliberately lost it somewhere along the way in her travels, but she can never quite bring herself to do so. 

Much like the proverbial man with the amputated limb it is like a phantom pain that she carries inside of her. Try as she might, it refuses to be utterly banished and the ghosts still haunt her.

Like a chameleon capable of changing everything from its skin tone and even its eyes, and even its smell to match whatever environs it might be in, Cassandra has resolved that refuses to be tied down. 

She will march to the beat of her own drum, and she will carry on no matter what.


End file.
